1. Field
The present embodiments relate to battery-powered electronic devices. More specifically, the present embodiments relate to techniques for adaptively generating low-battery warnings based on charge-consumption patterns associated with batteries used to power the electronic devices.
2. Related Art
Batteries may be used to power a variety of electronic devices. For example, AA and/or AAA batteries may be used in devices such as cameras, toys, flashlights, peripheral devices, game controllers, and/or remote controls. On the other hand, lithium-ion and/or lithium-polymer batteries may be used to power mobile phones, portable media players, laptop computers, and/or tablet computers.
In addition, battery-powered electronic devices may include functionality to generate “low-battery warnings” that notify users of reduced states-of-charge in the batteries that may subsequently disrupt use of the electronic devices. For example, a mobile phone may generate a pop-up containing a low-battery warning after the state-of-charge of the battery in the mobile phone drops below 10%. The pop-up may thus allow a user of the mobile phone to plug in the mobile phone and/or reduce the power consumption of the mobile phone before the battery fully depletes and causes the mobile phone to power off.
However, the same types of electronic devices may consume battery power at different rates based on usage patterns associated with the electronic devices. For example, a wireless keyboard may be used by a first user for an average of two hours a day, while the same model of wireless keyboard may be used by a second user for an average of six hours a day. The second user may thus replace and/or recharge the batteries in his/her wireless keyboard about three times as frequently as the first user.
Different battery depletion rates may also cause low-battery warnings to be generated at different times prior to full battery depletion. In turn, such variance in the timing of low-battery warnings may adversely affect the use of battery-powered electronic devices. For example, a low-battery warning for a wireless keyboard may be displayed after the battery for the wireless keyboard falls below 10% capacity. As a result, an infrequent user of the wireless keyboard may find the low-battery warning to be a nuisance because the low-battery warning may be displayed for several weeks before the battery in the wireless keyboard is fully depleted. On the other hand, the low-battery warning may not provide enough notice to a frequent user of the wireless keyboard if the low-battery warning is shown to the user only a few days before the battery in the wireless keyboard runs out of power.
Hence, use of battery-powered electronic devices may be facilitated by mechanisms that generate low-battery warnings for the electronic devices in a consistent and/or timely manner.